The Paradox Game
by Toadsie
Summary: The Doctor aims to take Amy and Rory to an underwater water park on 24th century Earth but instead runs into a lifeless Earth filled with sands and ruins. On a quest to discover what went wrong and how to fix it, the TARDIS trio is thrown into a child's computer game of multi-universal proportions.
1. Capsules in the Sand

"Here we are-!" The Doctor grinned, swinging open the door of the TARDIS to reveal the new environment in which he and his two companions were to explore. Turning to see the looks on their faces, The cheery Doctor was suddenly hit in the back with a violent gust of sandy wind from outside. "What?" he questioned sharply.

"So, where is this? You said someplace familiar, but not quite familiar, right?" Amy chimed, waiting for an explanation. Neither she, nor Rory seemed to sense the confusion which the Doctor expressed, as he left the door frame of his big, blue box and trekked out into the outer desert terrain.

"Whaaaaaat!?" The Doctor said again, whipping out his sonic screwdriver. He clicked it a few times, examining the air, the sand, the location.

"Looks like a regular old Sahara desert to me," Rory said. He and Amy followed the Doctor out of the TARDIS and watched him expectantly, "Don't see what could be so great out here."

"No, no, no, no! This is not right!" The Doctor shouted, running his fingers through his hair in bafflement.

"What is it?" Amy asked, staring at the Doctor's back as he examined something, "TARDIS took us to the wrong spot again, didn't she?"

"No. No, it's not that. It's the opposite of that, in fact-!" the doctor turned around to face Amy and Rory, "In fact, she took us to exactly the spot I had specified, no problems at all." The Doctor walked briskly past Rory and Amy, back into the TARDIS. He jumped up to the control panel and hammered at some buttons, examining something on the screen of the control panel.

"What! No, no, no, no! What is this?! A prank?" He stressed, grabbing his head.

"Doesn't sound like there's no problems at all," Rory said.

"No, there were no mistaken locations! No problems with a moody TARDIS. But inevitably that is the problem just the same. Because, you see, this location shouldn't be all sand and ruins, and windy emptiness! I know that! You know that!" the Doctor gestured at the two.

The Doctor put his hands over his face and swung his head back, "Oh heavens, this can't be right!" he pushed his hands away from him in frustration, "Unbelievable."

"Doctor!" Amy rolled her eyes, "Just tell us where we are!"

The Doctor looked at Amy and Rory, bewilderment in his eyes, "Amy, Rory," he addressed, "We are on planet Earth. The Date is October 25th, 2422, and we are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean."

"We're in the Pacific?" Rory repeated, raising his eyebrows in disbelief.

The Doctor nodded slowly, as Amy and Rory slowly began to realize why the Doctor was making such a fuss.

"Well, are you sure the calibrations aren't off or something other?" Amy asked, gesturing haphazardly at the controls of the TARDIS, "Continental shift? Maybe?"

She looked at the Doctor, who shook his head, "No, no. This is where we are! No doubts about it!"

He turned back to his screens, clicking buttons and typing commands, "This is sheer madness! Impossible! The whole planet is in this state!"

Amy and Rory synchronously rose their eyebrows. "I'm sorry," Amy said, "The whole planet?"

"Yes! Yes! All of Earth!" The Doctor exclaimed, eyes wide on the screen.

Amy and Rory turned to look outside of the TARDIS, at the endless expanse of sand and sky.

"Well.." Rory mumbled, "That's.. unsettling..."

"Doctor, I thought you said us humans lived to see the sun explode? What the hell happened to the Earth in 400 years?"

"Something that wasn't meant to happen," The Doctor said, staring at the main screen on the TARDIS hub with deep concern. It showed a gridded map of the Earth in it's current state, and featured a handful of small blinking dots. "And I don't know how it did, but I plan on finding out," he said, then whipped away from the TARDIS control panel.

* * *

Somewhere out in the sands of the dead Earth, a vagabond's wayward cloak collected sand in a violent gush of wind. He trekked through the wastes towards a curious thing which he soon identified as some sort of small, white capsular object.

The wanderer knelt down in front of the object and, with two wiry, carapace arms, began to remove the sand. Upon excavation, a cylindrical tube, just about his size, was revealed. It arguably extended deeper into the earth, but the wanderer did not care to dig further. The top interested him enough. It was flat and white, with a green Spirograph, which he found strangely familiar.

He took his small fingers and traced the pattern studiously, trying to recall it's meaning. By chance, his hands wandered to the edge of the capped tube, and found the rim of a lid. He redirected his attention to this, and worked on removing it.

Doing this revealed the inside of the capsule: a dark hole, with rungs for climbing. It went deep into the earth, to where, the wanderer was unsure. Despite the holes in his knowledge, he felt strangely compelled to descend.

Obliging with this instinct, the wanderer climbed over the rim, departing from the desert air above him, and descending into the cool darkness of the buried capsule, where his actions would surely contribute to a complex machine of paradox.

* * *

The Doctor, Amy, and Rory were trekking through the sand.

"Despite Earth's current dead technological imprint, there seems to be four or so distinct and powerful signals distributed throughout the globe," The Three of them had just taken the TARDIS to a new location, according to the Doctor's readings. Now they had left it, grabbing cantines and dressing themselves with adequate head gear for desert travel. "One of them is stationed close by, and strangely enough, the others have been travelling towards this point as well."

"Moving? Like, signs of life?" Amy asked.

The Doctor shrugged, "Maybe. More likely, they're demolition drones making rounds, but even then there's something odd about it. Why are they congregating like so?" The Doctor clicked his sonic screwdriver, "And also, there's something about the numbers. They're eerie."

"I'm sorry, a demolition drone?" Rory said, "Are you saying that the Earth was demolished somehow?" Rory pointed at the ground.

The Doctor sighed, "It sure is unnerving. But it is possible that we have wandered into an alternate time-line which has somehow been the result of our meddling. Perhaps in this timeline, the Earth was cleared for demolition, for some stupid, backwards reason."

"And what might that be?" Amy asked.

"Who cares, but all I'll say is, if there was ever a way for us to prevent it, I must have been dead or unconscious, because there isn't ever a way I would let this happen!"

"But is there a way to get it back?" Amy asked. The Doctor looked at her, unsure as to what to say "I mean, is there a way to reverse it? To get back to our Earth?"

The Doctor trudged on in the sand, "It's theoretically possible, but unnervingly difficult," he said lowly. Then he picked up his voice, "But don't worry, Mr. and Mrs. Pond! We'll get to the bottom of this sandy earth business!" he trudged farther in front of them and looked up into the blue, cloudless desert above.

"Okay, but how much longer do we have to walk through this sand to do so?" Rory complained, trudging behind Amy.

"Oh come on, soldier. Didn't you do plenty of walking?" Amy teased.

"Yes, but it's going to be dark soon, and also, walking through sand is a painful chore."

The Doctor stopped and examined his sonic screwdriver, "Well it's not much farther, you two. The signal we've tracked comes from right behind this dune right in front of us," he said, gesturing to a medium sized hill of sand in front of them. Definitely surmountable.

The Dune right in front of them turned out to be farther than expected. They spent a good amount of time walking towards it, and when they found they had reached it's base, the medium hill had become a rather large, sleeping giant, with an unrealistic incline.

"Are you serious?" Rory asked, exhausted from the long walk under the sun.

"Oh. Huh.." The Doctor said, "I guess it was just an annoying spatial mirage... This isn't a dune!"

"You think?" Amy said, hunched over next to her husband, both completely exhausted and sun burnt.

"Yes, well..." The Doctor began, "It seems that two of the signals have settled on top of it. It.. Whatever it is. Perhaps what's left of a shoreline."

"Where are we then? Which continent?" Rory asked.

"Well, I think it's more likely to have been an island. Middle of the pacific ocean." The Doctor said.

"Oh hell," Rory panted, "I'm not climbing that thing."

The Doctor looked up and down the cliff side, his eyes wandering to the left more and more. He took a few steps back and tilted his head back to see something, "Oh what have we here?"

"Please tell me you see an easier way past it." Amy said.

Without a word, the Doctor whisked off towards his target, which to the disappointment of Rory and Amy, was not nourishment, shade, or an easier mode of travel.

They meandered behind The Doctor as he leaned down in front of what appeared to be fresh footsteps. "They haven't been here long. Perhaps a day and a half! And it looks like they doubled back on themselves and returned in this direction for some reason," The Doctor gestured towards the shoreline.

"So there are still humans living here." Amy said, kneeling next to the Doctor, who was scanning the footprints with his screwdriver.

"Maybe!" The Doctor said, standing up and looking in the direction where the footprints led. Rory had followed them a little ways to where they started up an indent in the side of the ancient shoreline. After that they entered a narrow trench through the sand, which probably lead inland- the perfect solution to conquering the dune. "They may not be human, but this changes everything!" The Doctor turned to Amy, "Oh, is this curious!"

Amy looked at the trench, "Alright, off to the trench, then."

The Doctor nodded, as he and Amy began towards Rory and the trench, "Yes! I'm eager to meet our friend here."

Suddenly, a distant, yet startling noise, like a pop, was heard coming from the trench. The Doctor and Amy halted. Rory was also startled.

"It's gunfire," Rory called, "They might not be friendly, after all."

The Doctor and Amy joined Rory at the base of the trench, as more gunfire was heard coming from over the mound. This time it sounded like a machine gun.

The three of them, nervous about by the gunfire, yet determined nonetheless, made their way through the dark, narrow trench. The ground slanted upward, but not at the steep incline with which the outside mountain had. It was cool in the trench thankfully, and moral was high. The Doctor tried singing songs with the two, but found that they did not enjoy his voice. Nor his whistles, nor his silly traveling games which he tried playing with them. (I-spy? I spy what? A funny shaped rock?).

"It's getting too cold now." Rory complained, pulling himself up over a large sandstone shard in the ground which blocked the pathway of the trench, "the sun's nearly gone down."

Amy helped Rory up the rest of the way, then turned to look at the Doctor, who climbed ahead of them, "Rory has a point, Doctor. What are we going to do for shelter. Didn't think of that when we left the TARDIS, did ya?"

The Doctor halted his walking through the narrow trench, placing one hand on the sandstone wall, "Oh, so I misread the distance! Come on, look- here's the end- right up there!" he pointed up a very steep slope, at a gap between the trench walls. It was wide and featured the canvas of the twilight sky, which gleamed pink as the sun set.

"And look- Do you see that, smoke!" The Doctor mentioned, "They've got a campfire. Warmth awaits us!"

The three made their way up the slope.

"And possibly gunfire," Rory said.

"Oh please- they stopped firing hours ago," replied Amy.

Rory tripped forward on the slope, but successfully rose to his feet and continued, "Or perhaps they just ran out of targets," he said, leaning on the trench wall.

They arrived at the top of the slope and found themselves standing at the edge of a large crater filled with sand, as well as a variety of other things.

"Oh, curious indeed." The Doctor said, examining the scenery.

They hadn't been able to grasp much of it in the narrow trench, but all around them were several tall pillars, or what was left of them. They seemed to have stumbled upon some partially buried ruins, though of what, the Doctor was unsure. In the center of the pillars was a tall, Central-American-esque temple with stairs that led up to a large, stone figure, which seemed to be missing a head.

"Wow. A.. headless frog? Maybe?" Amy said, putting her hand on her hip and nodding her head.

"Yes, I'm guessing this is what's left of some ancient religious temple. Strange how sturdy that central structure is." The Doctor said. He buzzed his sonic screwdriver.

Rory walked up next to them, shivering, "Well let's go greet the frog worshipers and steal their sacred fire." Amy, Rory, and the Doctor averted their attention to the small campfire near the temple, which seemed to have 4 people seated around it. There was an aroma of beans in the air. Beans?

"Yes- they don't look like they'll shoot us, do they?" The Doctor began teetering down the side of the crater in the direction of the campfire, "No! They look like they could offer good friendship, and perhaps better understanding of the state of things. Especially with those strangely shaped capsular pods near them."

"Yes what is that one- it's shaped like an egg?" Amy pointed at a round, white, egg-shaped capsule.

The three of them were spotted quite quickly, and were met, to their gladness, with wary eyes, and not wary gunfire, although one funny fellow wraped in caution tape seemed to be shifting nervously. All four of them seemed quite peculiar, wrapped in rags, and caution-tape. They weren't human, either. The fire-light flickered on skin which was either straight black or white, and appeared harder than human flesh.

"Ah! Carapacians! Hello! I'm the Doctor!" The Doctor chimed as the two groups met. They all stared at them with interest. "This is Amy and Rory- we're not from around here- or rather, we are- but we're a bit confused, because we remember things just a bit differently- you see"

The group stared in confusion, until one of them rose her voice, "Humans?" She said, then stood with an air of nobility which seemed to contradict her sun-stained rags. The female white carapacian stepped forward, "But how is this possible?"

"Yes, humans, yes," The Doctor muttered, "And, I'm not sure if you'll understand this, but, it appears that we have lost our time-line."

Amy, Rory, and the Doctor joined the Carapacians at the campfire. They expressed their desires to return to the TARDIS, and were provided an easy solution- an appearifier software available to use within any of the oddly shaped capsules surrounding them. The Doctor was lead by another white Carapacian into a tubular shaped capsule, while Amy and Rory remained by the fire and asked about what had become of Earth.

The Wayward Vagabond offered them baked beans, "Pardon my poor human etiquette, but these are tasty and I think you would like them!" he said, shoving piping hot cans of beans in their faces.

Rory smiled oddly, noticing the being's sash, "Thanks.. Mayor."

The carapacian beamed with delight.

* * *

The Doctor and the Mendicant entered the capsule through a large, gaping hole in the wall. Upon questioning, the Mendicant clarified that, perhaps it was best not to ask. Within the capsule was a gray, laboratory-like room, with a large console shaped like a house made up of four screens, like a window. The screens were black, except for what appeared to be a large, screen saver of the same house logo in more digitally graphic green. The Doctor was interested in the structure, but became automatically absorbed by a vibrant mural on the wall next to it, which demanded attention.

"Oh, this is beautiful!" the Doctor stopped in front of it, inspecting the interesting colors of the circular planets(?), and clouds.

"Yes, I think so too," said the Mendicant, who stopped leading the Doctor and looked back at him as he stepped closer to inspect the mural, focusing on a red planet which looked like a disc, and sticking out a finger to touch it, "Careful about the oil!" She shouted. But it was too late.

The Doctor looked at her strangely, sticking his finger in his mouth, "But it's chalk isn't it?"

The Mendicant put her hand to her forehead, "No- I mean on the floor,"

The Doctor looked down at his shoes, to see that he was standing on a chess board drawn in white chalk, with oil used sloppily to fill the black squares, "Ohh.. resourceful! Fancy a game of chess?" He laughed, "But it'll never come out of these leather shoes."

"Yeah, The mayor is... creative..." the mendicant smiled, "But I suppose we all are in one way or another. No matter what kingdom we come from, or what our professions were."

The Mendicant lead the Doctor into a small, cramped tubular room, with a ladder to the sky. But instead of climbing up the ladder, the Mendicant selected an option on the door, and the whole floor rotated violently. Then the door opened again, and a new room was revealed.

"Here's the appearifier," she said, stepping in the room and gesturing to a strange looking device.

The device had two main screens with a dial which seemed to be able to switch between the two. It was set on a monitor with a schematic of Earth featured. The Doctor also noticed an additional terminal with interactive knobs, which seemed to feature coordinates and time. The Mendicant stepped in front of the terminal and adjusted the time stamp from "2009-04-13T12:13:00" to "2422-25-10T14:13"

The Doctor was curious about the original time stamp, but chose to keep his mouth shut until he had his TARDIS. He settled on memorizing the date. In the mean time, he directed his attention to the breadth of the terminal.

"Oh this is cool!" The Doctor stated, "Look at the aesthetics on this device. Did you design this?"

The mendicant blinked, "Me? Oh, no."

"Really? So then, what's it doing here? Who designed it?" The Doctor asked, using the controls to search for the TARDIS out in the sands of the desert. He found the TARDIS and locked on to it. With the satisfaction of a child in an elevator, the Doctor smacked the appearify button.

Then, in a flash of green light, the magnificent ship appeared next to The Doctor and the Mendicant on a large, circular platform.

"Fantastic," The Doctor said, waltzing up to it. He stroked the side of the box, "Sorry for leaving you out in the sand, old girl." He then turned to the Mendicant, who stood staring up at the ship in wonderment. She felt that she had seen it once before. And if the Doctor and his friends were indeed time travelers, she wouldn't doubt that it was possible.

"Yes, that is my ship, if you were wondering," The Doctor smiled, noticing her interest.

"Yeah it's nice! I think I've seen it somewhere." she replied, confessing her suspicion.

The Doctor rose his eyebrows, "Is that so?"

The Mendicant put her narrow fingers to her jaw and squinted at the TARDIS, "Yeah.. But I'm not really sure..." She trailed off.

Before the Doctor could say anything else, the Mendicant piped in again, "Would you like me to go fetch your friends?" she asked.

The Doctor smiled and nodded, "Oh, sure. Yes, they'd be happy to know I've got the TARDIS! Poor Amy and Rory are probably aching for a restroom and something other than beans to eat. Oh. Why do you all have cans of beans anyway?"

The Mendicant shrugged her shoulders.

She was just about to leave, but the Doctor stopped her again, "Yes," he began, getting her attention as she was exiting the capsule, "You never did tell me how you and your friends are involved with all this equipment."

"Umm... well.. If you really want to know, we just sort of stumbled across the capsules while wandering in the desert and they all came here while we were inside them."

"Ah. So they were the moving signals- just as I thought.. So, Miss, err Mail-lady-what's your name?"

The Mendicant blinked and looked away, "Mail-lady's fine," she said.

The Doctor continued his question "So these capsules were just sort of in the sands of dead Earth, and you and your friends stumbled upon them? And you have no understanding of their purpose or of who designed them?"

She blinked at the Doctor, "Oh, well.. I think some of us understand what's going on more than others. I mean, I know what I'm supposed to do with them, and well, though the judge and the mayor are very sloppy with their actions, especially regarding such young children, I know the Queen knows exactly what to do. Actually, I recommend that you ask her about it all. She'd know way better than me how to explain the capsule bases and all these other things you're asking me about."

"The Queen?" The Doctor asked.

Suddenly the Mendicant blushed, "Oh I wasn't supposed to call her that anymore! Please don't tell her I called her that!"

"You mean the other white Carapacian? Since when do Carapacian's have queens? Or mayors and mail-lady's for that matter."

The Mendicant seemed confused by this statement, due to her and the Doctor's clashing interpretations of Carapacian origins.

After a moment of silence, the Doctor waved his hand and approached the TARDIS, "Never mind, tell my friends I'll be in my ship, will you?"

The Mendicant looked at the TARDIS again, sort of wondering how three adult humans could fit in such a small, oddly shaped ship. She laughed slightly and then turned to leave. She wondered if Jade would find it funny too.

"Yeah, well.. Ask.. the Questant about the children if you want. I'm sure she'd be glad to help you out in any way, as am I!" she said, exiting the room through the door.

"The Children?" The Doctor questioned. But she was gone. He felt the rooms rotate as she returned to the room with the hole in it to exit.

As soon as she was gone, the Doctor wandered from the TARDIS over to the Appearifier. He looked at the other monitor, which seemed to show a schematic of an unfamiliar solar system consisting of 4 large planets and some smaller bodies in orbit around some sort of sun or similar structures.

"Deja vu? I feel like I just saw this in the other room..." The Doctor muttered, "The Earth and a new solar system..." He shook his head, "Very strange... What is happening to you, old Earth? Who made these machines and what do carapacians have to do with them?" The Doctor leaned down to adjust the time stamp. He turned it back to the date which the machine had formerly been locked on to: "2009-04-13T12:13:00," then he zoomed into the Earth monitor, revealing a natural, pre-apocalyptic world. He found himself in the middle of the vast pacific ocean, filled with water as it should be. He adjusted the coordinates to London, finding the city just fine too.

Before the Doctor could get any emotionally risky ideas about spying on old friends, he changed the year to 2010. To his shock, not even a year later, London lay in charred ruins. "2009," mumbled the Doctor, "Whatever happened, happened in 2009..." He thought of all the things he had done that year, the people he met, and the people who should have lived. He cringed and then reminded himself- he had to find out when it happened. If he could find out when it happened, then perhaps he could reverse it! ...Or... stick everything into a paradoxical loop in which he was the cause of everything in the first place...

* * *

"I see," the Questant spoke, "You three are from an alternate version of this Earth. One that does not lay in a state of rubble as it does now, and in actuality, proceeds to grow and prosper for many more generations."

"Yep," Amy said, "So what happened? I mean, we remember it being all green grass and blue oceans, and not this sandy globe stuff."

The Questant looked at her sympathetically, "Something has passed which is simultaneously wonderful and horrible, you must understand. It is as tragic and beautiful as life and death itself, and as fundamental as breathing..."

* * *

The Doctor changed the time stamp back to the 13th of April at 12:13 PM. He flipped through the hours of that day, examining London, the continent of Europe, the Earth, the Pacific Ocean. He soon learned that it all happened on the 13th. The meteors, the firestorms, the impossible, irradiated explosion which incinerated the entire planet. He watched it all happen, turning the dial, until the earth stood still. Tears fell from his eyes. The Earth had burned- mankind was all gone- and he hadn't done anything to prevent it. He was the last Timelord, and Amy and Rory were the last humans.

He caught himself sulking and made an effort to come out of it, and focus on fixing the problem.

"Meteors... The meteors... Where did they come from?" But the terminal did not zoom out further than a full view of the globe. It almost seemed as if they came out of no where, "Definitely unnatural... But for what purpose would anyone do this? Why decimate a perfectly good planet in order to let it sit in dust for half a century?" The Doctor jumped towards the terminal and started turning knobs.

* * *

"I don't think we follow," Amy said.

The Questant nodded, "Then allow me to illuminate your understanding."

* * *

He hung his head on the screen and closed his eyes in desperate thought. He thought of all his enemies, of all the apocalypse-bent villains that he had encountered throughout his life. If it were the Cybermen, there would still be life, even if corrupt. If it were Daleks who took the Earth, they would have infested the place already with their own twisted civilization. "Who could have orchestrated such a spontaneous and pointless demise?"

* * *

"I shall begin by explaining to you that there are forces that reign over the realms of existence which surpass the abilities of all living beings to understand them in their entirety," The Questant stated, "Forces which exist to create and to destroy. Forces which weave together a never-ending chain of infinite beings, holding hands through time and space."

Rory shoveled beans in his mouth, and Amy, who had finished hers, sat with her elbows on her knees as she listened. The Vagabond and the Renegade sat, eying their guest's unsurely.

"These forces dictate that certain functions must come to pass in order to continue building these never-ending chains of existences," said the Questant.

Soft footsteps were heard in the dark coming from the capsule. It was The Mendicant. She approached them, and sort of slightly, awkwardly, nodded her head in front of the Questant. Then she looked at Amy and Rory, "Your friend's interesting ship is in the Skyship Base capsule over there. He asked me to tell you."

Rory stood up, "Oh, goody," he said, then turned gracefully and briskly walked towards the capsule.

Amy yelled after him, "After you take a whiz, get me something to drink! Rory!" Then she turned back to the Carapacians, "Ok, go on- something about all of existence, correct?"

* * *

The Doctor hung his head. He stared down at the control panel from the nook of his elbow in thought, until he was interrupted by the appearance of Rory behind him.

"Do I got to piss!" Rory said. He paused as he noticed that the Doctor looked troubled.

"A perfectly orchestrated apocalypse," said the Doctor, without looking at Rory.

Rory tilted his head, "What is it? Did you figure out what happened?"

The Doctor spun around and looked at him, then gravely said, "The Earth was destroyed in one day... In 2009... April."

Rory blinked, "2009? Amy and I were around then. How is that even possible?"

"Time shenanigans," The Doctor did not even hesitate.

"Well what happened to it then? How did it happen?"

The Doctor turned to the appearifier, "Meteors it seems. A lot of meteors. And then an explosion so powerful that it rivals any weapon the daleks might have even conceived of." He stared at the destruction in the center of London which he had called up to show Rory. "And I'm not sure who caused it. Or why. No, I definitely do not understand why."

"What does the house symbol mean?" Rory asked looking down at the right-most button on the control panel, which featured a symbol of a house made up of 4 squares, like a window.

The Doctor looked at the button, "I can't say. I have no idea much of what this machine does, aside from _appearifying_ things."

"Well the same symbols on the outsides of all the capsules outside. And I saw it a bunch of times while trying to find my way to this room. You haven't, like, seen it anywhere else in the universe, or anything?"

The Doctor shook his head, "I've only seen it around here, But you're absolutely right, Rory, it's certainly important- and, I have no idea what it means." With no hesitance, he slapped the button with the house symbol on it and looked up at the screens to see what would happen. They blinked and returned to the standard position: the Earth schematic zoomed entirely out, and the strange, foreign solar system, which lay untouched.

"Well that was useless." Rory said.

What it did do, however, was reset all the calibrations on the control panel. The time had reverted back to April 13th 2009 at 12:13, and now, the coordinates read: "47.362101 -122.05414421605"

"Oh but it did do something! It seems to have reverted back to some sort of home-base point." The Doctor said, realizing that the coordinates had changed. He attended to the screen of the Earth and, began to zoom in to that specific point.

"But what if they're just random? It looks like it's just taking you somewhere in Canada." Rory said, pointing at the screen, "Or, perhaps that's America?"

The Doctor shook his head, "Oh please. Random? Nothing's truly random. Look here, it seems to have zeroed in on an ordinary suburban house. Where is that? Washington State? Why is it centered on this house? If it were a random point, Rory, you'd think it'd be somewhere in the middle of a field, or an ocean, or parking lot."

Rory blinked, "Well, hit the button again, does it just give you random coordinates?"

They hit the button again. The Doctor expected it to stay on the same coordinates, but instead, it changed again. This time, the coordinates switched to, "44.5175,-74.821389"

"See- random." Rory said, looking at the Doctor meaningfully.

The Doctor scrunched his face and zoomed in, "I don't think I agree with you, but maybe... Aha! This one zooms in on another house. Oh, I rather like this one. Very Frank Lloyd Wright-esque."

"Well maybe it's just designed to zoom in on random houses?" Rory tilted his head.

They hit it again, it gave them the coordinates for an apartment building in Texas. Still trying to prove their individual theories, Rory and the Doctor hit the button another time. This time, it took them to an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

"Rory," The Doctor said, "If this machine is designed to take you to random house coordinates, then why is one of the random coordinates the center of this very island we are stationed upon?" He tapped the screen, where the frog-temple stood, surrounded by ocean water and a moon-shaped island.

Rory nodded, "Oh, Okay, I stand corrected.." he mumbled, "That is a little specific."

They hit the button again, and it sent them to to the original coordinates which had been featured- the suburban house in Washington, USA.

The Doctor stepped away from the monitor, leaving Rory staring at the screen curiously.

"Alright then! Let's alert Amy, and we can be on our way." The Doctor said, making his way towards the door.

"What? Where are we goi-?" Rory paused, and then nodded his head in understanding, "Oh. We're going to one of the coordinates? Why? I mean, we don't know if there's anything we can do, right? We'll just get obliterated like the rest of the world! I mean, do you even know why these houses are important? Or how about where these machines even came from?"

"Oh come on! Don't think like that, Rory. We've definitely had worse. And no, I don't have a clue where this machine came from" The Doctor said. He paused for a moment, remembering what the Mendicant had told her, "Right. Let's go fetch Amy, as well as have a chat with one white carapacian noble."

"Oh first let me take a leak, I've been holding it for a while now." Rory said, suddenly remembering that he had initially come into the capsule to seek a restroom. Rory headed into the TARDIS.

The Doctor, who wasn't going to wait for Rory to piss, glanced back at the screen again- at the suburban house. He noticed a tree with a child's tire swing in the front yard. Children. The Mail-lady had mentioned children. Twice, he recalled. The machines and the Carapacians had something to do with children from before the world ended. Very curious. Perhaps-

Suddenly, a familiar noise filled the cavity of the appearification room, interrupting the Doctor's train of thought. It was the Tardis' engines taking off.

"Nonononononono!" The Doctor yelled, dashing towards his TARDIS, "Rory!" He yelled. He made it just inside the doors, as the complex ship began to fade into thin air.

Outside the skyship base, the sound traveled to Amy's ears.

She stood up suddenly, in the middle of the Questant's tale of paradox space, and rushed in the direction of the noise.

"What the hell?!" She yelled, running towards the skyship base. The hole that had been blown in the wall was blocked off, due to the outer cavity of the base being misaligned with the inner, rotating cavity. Amy banged on the wall of the base, "Doctor! Rory! Come back you pea-brains!"

But the sound faded, and she was left, hands clenched, staring into the skyship base with despair.

The Doctor rushed into the TARDIS to find Rory, standing in the central hub area with his fly undone staring at the TARDIS panels in a state of panic.

"Rory! What have you done!?" The Doctor asked.

"I did nothing!" he said raising his hands, "She just decided to take off while I was trying to use the restroom!"

Attending the coordinate panels, the Doctor tried shutting off the engines, but the TARDIS lurched on it's own, disobeying his efforts to make it stop. The Doctor looked at the readings on the screen.

"Where in hell are we going? My god!" He exclaimed, "The readings are obtuse and unintelligible! Is that a tilde?"

The TARDIS began to rock and shake violently. The Doctor and Rory took hold of the railings.

"What about Amy?" Rory yelled over the noise of the engines.

"We'll get back to her!" The Doctor replied.

Suddenly something hot burned inside the Doctor's pocket. He immediately recognized it as his psychic paper, and whipped it out with one hand, "Youch!" he exclaimed, holding onto the railing tight with one hand while trying to read the psychic paper with the other. His eyes widened as he saw the characters on the page. They kept changing very rapidly, written in various colors, in what seemed to be various languages, or.. quirks. There were little emoticons like on the computer, and expletives, words that a child would say, words of fear, hope, death, and games.

The Doctor was unable to keep reading because the psychic paper was thrust out of his hand as the TARDIS lurched to one side and then the other. He looked over at Rory, who had unsurprisingly lost consciousness in the untamed convulsions of the ship, and before the Doctor himself knew it, everything turned black for him too.


	2. Aurthor note

Hey kids, I noticed that there's a lot of people who like this story.

I like, don't have any time to work on it at all until like June. Even then, I probably wont continue it in text form- at this point I think I would prefer drawing the rest of the chapters out in a visual narrative. If I do so I'll link you guys.

Writing is time consuming, dog. UHhh.. You can have the start of the next chapter which I wrote in January if you want. Though I'm not really satisfied with it. Let me know.


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